[Guide] How to Dual Boot Remix OS with Windows [UEFI / Legacy]

Remix OS is the first fully functional Android Operating System specially made for computer users. It brings several useful features of Android in a more pc-friendly way, delivering you the best of both Android and Windows.

It was released on 12th January 2016 and got popular from the Day 1. Indeed, it is super awesome.

But Dual Booting it along with Windows was a major issue, as the OS was released as a portable Operating System that got stored in a USB Flash Drive and you needed to plug in the Flash Drive every time you want to boot to Android. For more details, see Install Remix OS on your PC with USB Flash Drive.

Well, Finally, we got a useful trick to Dual Boot Remix OS along with your Windows on your Computer.

And this supports all 64 bit computers, whether it is UEFI or Legacy. So you can taste its features while not compromising your Windows.

There are many advantages of this method:

No need to use USB Flash Drive to boot Remix OS. Your Remix OS will stay right on your computer.

Your Windows OS will remain untouched. None of your files on C Drive will be harmed. All your internal storage media will also remain intact.

On every boot, you can choose which home you want to enter: Either Windows or Remix. 🙂

No need to change your BIOS mode from UEFI to Legacy and vice versa. This method will work for all 64-bit computers. (32-bit support coming soon)

Remix OS Screenshots:

Here are some screenshots from Remix OS on my Laptop. The picture quality isn’t much good mainly because of two reasons:

I couldn’t take Screenshots inside Android.

I took photos from my Mobile by pointing it towards the Laptop. Lack of Good Camera! Anyways it should do the job! The brightness is dimmer in screenshots.

Enough of Screenshots! Now let’s begin the steps to Dual Boot Remix OS with Windows.

Determine your BIOS Mode:

Well, there is a very natural step to determine your BIOS Mode, and we are giving it below only for those who don’t know how to check BIOS Mode.

Those who knows how to do that may skip this step and follow the next steps.

Here we begin:

On your keyboard, Windows Key + R and the Run Command Dialog Box will Open.

Enter this run command and click OK: msinfo32

The system information Dialog Box will open. Click on Top Left System Summary and then search for the option: BIOS Mode on the right.

You will find either your BIOS Mode is UEFI or Legacy.

Based on that, we are going to follow the steps below.

So make sure you are fully aware of the BIOS mode you are in.

Disable Secure Boot:

You need to Disable Secure Boot before installing Remix OS else it will not Boot.

What is Secure Boot?

Secure Boot is a feature made by Microsoft on your windows that will allow booting of only Windows OS signed by Microsoft and Reject other Operating Systems.

What are the advantages and the disadvantages?

Well, the advantage is to protect you from hacking software that may try to install a foreign operating system and hijack your computer. Secure Boot checks for Microsoft Signature before booting each time and makes sure you are in Windows before booting.

The disadvantage, on the other hand, is that it will also not let you Dual Boot your computer with any other Operating System. So, you need to disable it.

How to Disable Secure Boot?

A step by step guide to do that is available here. Follow it and you can quickly disable secure boot.

Create a New Drive Partition on your computer:

Now we will create a New Drive Partition on our computer where we can install our Remix Operating System.

The drive should be of 20GB Space at least.

Again, for the “Techy” guys, this step is very easy. But for the non-techy guys, this can be painful, so we are discussing it too. If you know it, just skip this step too.

First Right Click on Windows Button and Click Disk Management. The Disk Management Dialog Box will load.

Now select any existing drive having free space over 20GB. Leave out C Drive. Choose from the Rest.

Right Click on any Drive and Click Shrink Volume. You can see this dialog box (Refer to the Picture Below), and it will ask you space to Shrink.

Choose the space as 20000 MB and Click Shrink.

You will find a blank Unallocated Space of Memory 19.5 GB. That is the volume we shrank.

Now Right Click on that Space in Blank and Click New Simple Volume. The New Simple Volume Wizard will load.

Click Next. It will ask for the simple volume size. Keep it as it is. Click Next.

Now it will ask you to Assign a Drive letter. Do that and click Next.

Now it will ask you to Format Partition. Choose the File type as NTFS. Choose Allocation Unit Size as Default. Click Next.

Finally, Click Finish to Complete making your New Partition inside your computer where we are going to Install our Remix OS.

Know what you just did: The above commands are simple and won’t affect your Windows in any ways. You just set up Dual Boot for your Windows. Now everytime you start your computer; it will ask you which OS to boot. If you select Windows, it will boot to Windows, if you choose Android OS, it will Boot to Android.

Now everything is done. Restart your computer.

While restarting, it will ask you which Operating System to Boot. Click on Change Defaults or Choose Other Options Button at the below.

Now it will show Available Options. Click Choose Other Options.

Now it will show other available options. Click Use a Device.

Finally, choose Android OS from the Options.

That’s all you need to do. Now, wait till it Automatically Boots itself to Android.

How to Boot Back to Windows?

Booting back to Windows is easy. Just shut down once from the Android OS and Turn On your computer.

It will again ask you to choose which to boot. Choose Windows. And it will boot to your windows.

Everything installed on windows will stay intact as it is. This method is entirely reliable as we are not doing anything in C Drive. We are using up a different location to install Remix OS.

Video Tutorial:

Still wondering How to Do it?

Well, here is a video tutorial WITH A NEW METHOD (not the one I described above) how to do it. You may choose to check it out.

Remind you, this tutorial is ONLY FOR LEGACY DEVICES and WILL NOT WORK FOR UEFI.

Here it is below:

Conclusion:

That’s all about installing Remix OS on your Computer easily and Dual Booting Remix OS along with Windows. Hope you have understood it correctly. I have tried my best to make it as comfortable as possible.

path Specifies the existing NTFS directory where the mount point will reside. VolumeName Specifies the volume name that is the target of the mount point. /D Removes the volume mount point from the specified directory. /L Lists the mounted volume name for the specified directory. /P Removes the volume mount point from the specified directory, dismounts the volume, and makes the volume not mountable. You can make the volume mountable again by creating a volume mount point. /R Removes volume mount point directories and registry settings for volumes that are no longer in the system. /N Disables automatic mounting of new volumes. /E Re-enables automatic mounting of new volumes. /S Mount the EFI System Partition on the given drive.

after i run cmd as administrator i type mountvoll B:/s and its shows all possibility command and drive. but in the next step I am totally confuse. just after i type B: its shows the system cannot find the drive specified. I am totally stuck in here, my laptop in HP and Iam AMD user. can you help me bro…..

at the last step of restarting i restarted…but i did’t see the option of choosing between windows and remix os my tablet pc starts and go to windows 8.1. any help regarding this problems please i do all steps correctly.

Intel Atom Processor caused this issue. Intel Atom Processors aren’t capable of running even Linux OS Properly. Issues like freezing and stuck at bootloaders are common. I would ask you to try this on a computer with intel i3, i5 or i7 processor. Thanks.

Hey ! Nirmal Thanks for this long guide. it seems bit complex for me as i how you have used the commands and much more thing like putting those files.. i just need to ask is there any other method that is easy?

Pc boots straight to Windows 10 after disabling secure boot. Using the usb boot because I fear doing something wrong and losing my data. My laptop came with win 10, it’s an hp pavilion. I love the Remix OS so far and wish I could get boot from pc instead of usb.

I have successfully install remix 32 bit os and work good after one day suddenly appear snipping tool (screen short) selected all screen i close and randomly appear. how to solve this problem please give suggest.

Sorry to know about the issue. Well, this issue is completely new to me. I have never heard of such issues till now. Maybe you should post about this in Remix OS Official Google Plus Group. They are active and can be able to solve your issue.

Initially i just setup Remix os 3.0 for pc, on a separate partition, upon its installation, It overwrite Windows Boot Manager with GNU Grub v2.0, which basically messed up my tablet pc, as Windows 10 option, was nowhere to be seen. and Remix OS setup’s language page did not register clicks from my keyboard.

So i had to format my harddrive, to install Windows 10 again, & lost important files.

Firstly, I am very sorry to hear about your loss. 🙁 Secondly, I would like to notify you that we are always trying to fetch new methods and include them as soon as we get. But there lies a limitation in all these. Let me elaborate it a bit. There are thousands of computers with hundreds of manufacturers and hundreds of models which work differently. It is not possible to test on each type of model and write the steps for the same. We test on some of the models and ask our friends to try themselves, if they are able to reproduce it themselves, we understand that this method works for most (not every) computer systems and write it out. The method we included worked for majority of people with no or minor flaws. Since our step should not overwrite the Windows Boot Manager for most of the computer systems. But as always we cannot guarantee that it will work for all computer systems and our hands are also tied as we don’t get all systems to test out. Thanks for understanding. Lastly, thanks for reporting this. We will try to see if we can find any suitable method for you. Keep visiting HiTricks.

My problem is like OSR, i want to decrease the delay boot timeout of grub 2.02 from 30s down to 3s. I tried Windows boot manager, but it didn’t work, i cann’t find remix os boot on windows 10. But when i open PC, there’re 2 choices to boot from windows or remix os. I tried to type command line grub>grub_timeout=3 (this way i don’t know how to save, i can’t type “sudo update-grub”, and edit file grub.cfg, but it still don’t work. Please

Hi. I followed each and every step precisely. But after selecting Android during boot, the os is stuck at a CUI. ([email protected] x86_64). Funny part, i tried using the android’s Commandline commands here, and it works, indicating OS is installed atleast. Please help me out ;_;

hello, i’d like to ask how to edit grub.cfg if i just want to install only android x86(not the remix os). i have some issue with my surface 3 that i’d like to edit it manually. Thank you. i see the code of grub.cfg // set timeout=10

hello, Well, I have to say this. I (kind of)have a problem with tablet surface 3 that it won’t let user to install other OS or let user boot OS installer from ssd/USB. ;I can’t boot from USB on surface 3, it went straight to window 10 and didn’t show any grub OS select menu. (http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/55025-surface-pro-3-will-not-boot-usb.html) so I tried the normal process to install android 4.4 rc3 OS by USB on my notebook and it DID WORK very well. Then I googled the web and found this Remix OS and I did every process you mentioned above on surface 3 and the result was that It DID WORKED, I can see grub menu to choose window 10 or Remix OS on startup. So since I can’t install android OS normally by booting from USB on surface 3 BUT DID SUCCEEDED INSTALL REMIX OS by your tutorial, my assumptions is that I could bypass error by just manually edit and install grub.cfg directly for Android 4.4 rc3 to be bootable when startup. So I would like to ask if you could give some little help on the code in the grub.cfg file to make it boot Android OS on the startup(or see the grub OS selecting menu at least). Thank you, appreciated.

menuentry ‘Windows’ { search –file –no-floppy –set=root /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi chainloader (${root})/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi } // i have some kind of issue with my surface 3 that i can’t install normally so i’d like to ask how to edit this manually. thank you.

This is unexpected. Normally it should work fine. I tested on 2 computers myself already. You can do one thing, there’s a remix os community in google plus: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/remix-os-for-pc Just head over there and post your issue there. It’s an active official group where developers are there to assist. I am also an active member there. Post there so that we all can sort this out together. Best of luck. 🙂

Thank you for your useful knowledge. I have a question: today I tried to installed Remix OS latest Beta on HP All-in-one desktop (both UEFI and Lagacy) on drive E. But it cannot boot to Remix OS. when i disable UEFI in the BIOS, the computer refuses to start up into windws 7.

Guys, I beg you to help me! Trying to install it. I did EVERYTHING like in this instruction, but after command line step, computer just restarts and nothing’s coming up, just normal Windows start screen. Please help me! I

Hello, From the above link in the guide I have downloaded the following Android x86 installer : Android-installerV12legacy.exe. But it doesn’t want to start on my old PC running Windows XP pro SP3? No error message. I tried on my current PC running Windows10: the program is starting without any problem! What could be the problem?

Another question: why not simply adding a new command line in the boot.ini ? Regards

Hi, I think that’s due to secure boot options. You need to disable secure boot on your windows xp computer. Btw, xp is quite older version and I wonder if your computer hardware is compatible to run the Remix OS Smoothly.

For your second query, playing with boot.ini is risky. Grub is a better approach.

Hello, After checking there is no secure boot option in the BIOS nor in Windows XP. The issue is that the installer.exe program doesn’t start at all even if the user is the administrator and after desabling security against non authorized program. It looks like a Windows XP issue!

What is that program doing. Maybe I can do those actions through copy/paste, command lines and edit of some files?

Ya it says this message: This direct link will be available for your IP next 1 hours That means you can download the file for next 1 hours… just click on the download now button below and you can download it 🙂

Hi, Thanks for commenting. For me these steps which I described above were sufficient to give me windows 8.1 bootloader. I don’t know why it is giving you groub bootloader by default. Maybe others can help.

Shut down your system and boot back to windows. Don’t try installing it without making yourself sure you are downloading the correct version recommended for your device. If you are sure you have downloaded the correct version recommended for your device then bad luck. Wait for the future versions to release. You may get a compatible version.

After installation of Android-x86 delete system.img instead of system.sfs, replace the latter by Remix-Version as well as kernel, init and ramdisk. Boot entry in grub.cfg has to be changed from system.img to system.sfs.

here i dont understand it my friend.. how to change boot entry in grub.cfg? i can go to final step, but it fails to boot. it say :

error: no such device: / AndroidOS/system.img error: file ‘/AndroidOS/kernel’ not found. error: you need to load the kerne first.

I think i get that error because in the package, there is no system.img, there is only system.sfs. as you mention above, i delete system.img.. please tell me more detail how to change boot entry in grub.cfg. Please Help me.

After installation of Android-x86 delete system.img instead of system.sfs, replace the latter by Remix-Version as well as kernel, init and ramdisk. Boot entry in grub.cfg has to be changed from system.img to system.sfs.

Latest Remix release doesn’t contain system.img – I made it boot though: after installation of Android-x86 I deleted system.img instead of system.sfs, replaced the latter by Remix-Version as well as kernel, init and ramdisk. Boot entry in gruv.cfg has to be changed from system.img to system.sfs.

I created my own grub.cfg but you can edit it with the standard editor. If you use Windows, make sure to uncheck the option “Hide extensions for known file types” whithin the file explorer options. Then you can edit the .cfg file with right click and “Open with”.

Hyy nirmal thank for your tutorial and it’s working perfectly on me.. But the remix os automatically boot on guest mode… No options to choose resident mode… Please help me How to make it boot on resident mode…

Hi, If your tablet cum laptop supports touch, then you needed to download the Remix OS for Tablet version. It has touch response enabled. The Pc version is for non-touch display and it won’t support touch. However, the keyboard should work fine. Maybe in your case, the keyboard is also running into a problem due to the non-touch response.

Hey Nirmal, as i understand, your text tutorial can not works with Legacy devices right ? T_T (can’t mount B;) I have legacy and tried so many tutorial with EasyBCd but can’t boot, booting always stucks at “Booting the kernel”, when try debug, it stop at “Freeing smp memory…” Your tut gave me a hope but when i downloaded files and read comments, i wanna cry..

After carefully following your instructions, something very unfortunate happened. My computer won’t boot into anything, error 0xc000025, “a required device isn’t connected or can’t be accessed…”. If while turning it on I enter the bootloader menu, I am able to choose Android OS and run Remix OS BUT if I try windows it will come back to the error page described before.

I have to add I had previously installed Remix OS in a FAT 32 partition using EasyUEFI to add the boot option so I’m guessing that’s where it went wrong.

Any ideas on repairing my windows boot would be Increidbiky appreciated ?

Hi, I have nowhere gave instructions for EAsyUEFI, even I haven’t tried that method myself, so can’t help. Using those softwares are risky as they are 3rd party bootloaders, my method uses Windows as default bootloader, so chances of harm are nil. No idea about what to do in your case. Perhaps you can post this into remix os google group and maybe developers can help you out.

Hey i have tried both the tutorials first i went for the video version In that it got stucked at checking data partition And then i tried the other one and in mountvol B: /s i am getting this “The parameter is incorrect ” I think its maybe because i don’t have a B drive and that got me into thinking do i need to create a partition B first?

No, you don’t need a B drive… It’s just a random virtual mount point. If it is not working there are no other ways I know to make it work. But don’t change the drive name to any real drive please… It will create booting problems.

If there new update of Remix OS (in the future) the only who needed is copy&past new files: initrd.img – kernel -ramdisk.img -system.img ?? Or again from the beginning the same procedure?? thanks man is a very good method and smart..

Hi performed the installation with my win tablet all the procedures work as expected. However I noticed that after that my speakers output was so weak even with 100% volume. Is that something grub override some configurations on my boot?

In the video the conmand prompt part was not there which I did not do. Please help me, the remix os is working fine but I m not getting any option to chose , Directly m being taken to the remix os part….. please bhai help koro, ami o 2nd year engg student from chennai….. Windows chara vaat legegache, shudhu remix os boot hoye jachchhe……! Bangali bhai help chai…..

Great job with this tutorial. I followed it and booted into android without any problems. However,the first problem I have encounter is that I have run out of storage when trying to install apps and updates. I presume this is because I didn’t increase the size on the x86 installer. Is it possible to run this again and increase the size or do I need to do everything again from scratch. Thanks

Finished all steps. And after restarting the Grub loader appears at boot and when I select Android x86 it will just go black nothing happens. I want to reinstall and start from the top. But how can I delete Grub Loader?

Why did it appear at first? The steps I mentioned was meant to boot Windows Bootloader not the Android. To start afresh, delete and format the partition first, then delete the mountvol partition with this command: ————————————- mountvol B: /d ————————————-

It is an amazing tutorial. Thank you so much. I followed all the steps carefully but even then I am unable to see the boot options screen when I reboot my laptop. It reboots normally and directly loads windows 10. Please help?

Sir, This is a superb tutorial. Thanks for helping the newbies 🙂 I haven’t yet done it. My exams are going. I’ll do it after a week. I just wanted to ask that I’ve got Windows 7 32 bit(my processor is 64 bit), any Problem? Will I follow same steps or will Remix OS sypport. Secondly, the tutorial which first surfaced about installing Remix OS on USB, does that method replace Windows on my PC/ cause any harm? Alter C:\ files or something?? Thank You. 🙂

For your second question, well, your Windows files will remain as it is. It will cause no harm to the C Drive. You can try it safely.

For your first question, you have said your processor is 64bit, so there should not be any problem ideally. But well, even if any issue occurs, it will not harm or change your windows files in any ways, all your softwares and media files in Windows will stay as it is. (at best, the android will not boot up and show error and reboot to windows). So, don’t worry. Happy Experimenting. 🙂

I have installed remix on my sp3. However, it takes too much of a hassle to boot windows as sp3 will boot the bitlocker recovery, then click on skip, use a device, AndroidOS, waits for it to reboot and load the x86 menu, and pick windows. My other comment is just that sound didnt worked for me and I cant seems to change the video quality on youtube. I think its better off for me to have my windows set back to default boot and boot remix from usb if I need to.

Sorry for my repost! I feel dump! 🙁 I did post yesterday but because I did not insert an URL I got no indication the post came thru. And I did not found it on the web site so I assumed I have to post again.

Hello, thank you for this guide. I already own a Remix Mini and I am eager to get Remix OS dual booting with my Windows side by side …

Unfortunately I am doing something wrong I suppose. I can choose Android-OS via ‘Use a device’ at Windows side. My PC reboots and the Grub menu comes up offering me two choices 1. Android-OS, and 2. Windows. Choosing Android-OS the boot proceeds telling me that it founds Android at /dev/sdaX or /dev/hdaX (I forgot which one). Then the splash screen A N D R O I D comes. But this was all. Nothing seems to happen anymore. After a while my PC magically reboots and Windows comes back.

Everything went without any problems accept for one thing. when I restart I dont get the boot menu. I noticed you have a dual boot setup for Windows and 8.1 how do I bring up the menu with no other OS installed?

– I kept the bootloader as Windows. – So when i turn my computer, windows os bootloader loads, and asks me which os to load. – if i choose windows, it will immediately take me to log in screen (as windows os has already loaded that time due to windows bootloader) – if i choose android, only then it will load the grub bootloader and ask me which os to load again. (that is grub bootloader not windows)

I think you didnt set Windows as default bootloader. (which means you did something wrong in between…)

Tell me these: When you restart, what do you get? Did you disable Secure Boot?

Although I was finally able to find the link for the Android OS the system reboots and gives a failed error message. I have now tried the procedure twice with the same results. Originally I was attempting to use an sdcard and thought that might be the issue so I tried again. using the clean option on the android application. I also mounted B: and removed the instance of Android OS created there for the sd. Then started through the tutorial again but unfortunately it failed again. And yes secure boot is disabled. Thank you fot your help. Do you have any other ideas I can try?

I followed every detail. Because the Android does not come up in the bootloader screen and there is only one option the bootloader had no reason to open and ask me which to boot, I add a second instance of Windows and after doing so was able to click the custom boot option. Thank you for your help!

OK….Can you please describe what is the boot chain in UEFI Remix OS ? What bootloader Remix OS uses for UEFI booting and how it differ from that it uses for Legacy booting ? I mean what is the difference between contents of a Legacy and UEFI Remix OS ?

Actually I want to install both Legacy and UEFI Remix OS in my USB Drive so that I can boot Remix OS in both Legacy and UEFI system from a single USB Drive. Is it possible to keep only one ‘data.img’ file so that both Legacy and UEFI Remix OS share that common ‘data.img’ to access Apps. By this way I don’t have to install Android Apps twice.

Is there any difference between following files of Legacy and UEFI Remix OS ? initrd.img Kernel ramdisk.img system.img

I think there should be difference between bootloaders not Remix OS core files. Is it WRONG ?

Please help me…..I am also from INDIA…..I loved you blog….Keep it updated…

I have the same issue on a HP notebook. I works fine from the usb in resident mode but when I start resident mode from the hard drive it does this where is starts up just fine but every 15-20 secs it switches back to the upgrading screen and then back to the desktop. Can anyone help??

Actually the video is added for reference as an alternative to the legacy method. Both are different. No, don’t change the drive letter. [I also used drive H, but kept the command B.] That grub should work as a virtual partition booting both. (B is a virtual partition) If you choose H, then it will boot only Android and not windows.

After I chose to boot to Android-OS, the grub menu will comes up and let me choose between Android-OS and Windows again. Choosing Android-OS the splash screen comes up showing it founds an Android on /dev/hdaX or such and then showing A N D R O I D …

Unfortunately this is the last I get to see. After a while not getting into Remix OS the computer reboots itself and Windows starts again.